Burn victims seek expanded workers' comp benefits

Blast victims seek expanded benefits for workers' comp

KATHRYN A. WOLFE, Copyright 2001 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau

Published
5:30 am CDT, Wednesday, April 4, 2001

AUSTIN -- They know what percentage of their bodies were burned in the Phillips fireball last March. They remember how it felt to have their fingernails seared away. They can recount exactly how many days they spent in the hospital having their skin cut and scoured.

But they can't tell you what the future holds, after the money from their workers' compensation claims runs dry.

Brian Hall was a skilled craftsman, a 19-year veteran at the Phillips plant in Pasadena. Now, his burned and brittle hands can't curl enough to hold a screwdriver. Opening a door is a challenge. Holding a drinking glass is almost impossible.

Jeff Cooper, a project engineer at the Pasadena plant, said his first thought when he regained consciousness was how he would provide for his children because his hands, face and legs were debilitatingly burned.

"This tool right here is a creation of God that can't be replaced, and I can't get it back," Cooper said, gesturing with arms and hands sheathed in a tan protective covering. "This isn't a one-month ordeal in the hospital, this is continuous. There's not been a pain-free day that I've gone through."

Cooper, Hall and two other men injured in the blast were in Austin on Tuesday to ask lawmakers on the House Business and Industry Committee to pass a bill that would provide lifetime workers' compensation benefits for certain burn victims.

Authored by John Davis, R-Houston, the bill would give lifetime benefits to those who have suffered second- and third-degree burns on more than 40 percent of their body including their head and hands, and who have been treated with skin grafts, or debriding. Debriding is a process by which dead skin is scoured from the burned areas of the body.

Currently, a lifetime benefit is extended to those who have lost both feet, both hands or a combination of both, been blinded, paralyzed or severely brain damaged. For those who don't qualify, the maximum workers' compensation claim, which includes medical treatment and wages, is just over 7 1/2 years.

After Tuesday's testimony concluded, the room and legislators gave the four men a standing ovation.

Davis said he expected to have the committee's full support, and that severe burns are a lifetime handicap that should be provided for.

"Their skin is their protective covering and when that's gone you can't go outside like you used to. The cold weather affects you, the hot weather affects you," Davis said. "You can't work with your hands, you can't work with your tools. It totally cripples their entire being ... and it affects their ability to make a living."

Though the bill would not be retroactive, the four men said they traveled the distance so that those who come after them would not be faced with the same uncertainty and family strain.

"I'll never work as a mechanic again," said Roby Plemons, holding up his burned arms and hands. "The bill does nothing for us, and that's OK. We want to help the people who come behind us."